What makes a good title?

The chances are the first thing you when you set out to write an article is the title. But what factors transform a mediocre title into a good title? Firstly, it should be both informative and specific, using words or phrases likely to be used when searching for information, for example ‘nurse education’ rather than simply ‘nurse’. Secondly, it should be concise yet convey the main ideas clearly; articles with short titles reporting study findings have been found to attract higher numbers of viewing and citations. Thirdly, provide details of the study design to assist the reader in making an informed choice about the type of project your article is reporting. In taking these small steps when developing your title, your title can present a more concise, retrievable and clear articulation of your article.     

Can e-government reduce local governments' financial deficits?——Analysis based on county-level data from China

Research has shown that the centralization of financial power in unitary states is not conducive to local governments' promotion of e-government, resulting in the expansion of local fiscal deficits. The fundamental reason for this problem lies in the contradiction between the information disclosure required for effective e-government and the information concentration characteristic of unitary countries. To identify the impact of e-government on fiscal deficits in this context, we take two e-government pilot projects in China as quasi-natural experiments and conduct difference-in-differences analysis of county-level data from 1997 to 2018. Through a common trend test, a placebo test, a lagged outcome variable design and the difference-in-differences with propensity score matching method, we validate our finding that e-government can effectively reduce the fiscal deficit of local governments. This function is mainly realized through the application of media tools and expansion of the scale of local enterprises. However, the impact of e-government on fiscal deficit differs significantly between regions with different levels of economic development. The effect is more obvious in regions with a poorer economic foundation. Our findings indicate the importance of e-government construction in unitary developing countries.     

Is What’s “Trending” What’s Worth Purchasing? Insights from a National Study of Collection Development Librarians

ABSTRACT

New forms of data like altmetrics are helping librarians to make smarter decisions about their collections. A recent nationwide study administered to librarians at R1 universities shines light on exactly how these metrics are being applied in academia. This article is based on a presentation from the NASIG 31st Annual Conference. It includes survey results addressing previously unknown rates of technology and metrics uptake among collection development librarians, the most popular citation databases and altmetrics services being used to make decisions, and surprising factors that affect attitudes toward the use of metrics.     

Variations in article seeking and reading patterns of academics: What makes a difference?

Although scholarly articles play an important role in the work life of academics, specific patterns of seeking and reading scholarly articles vary. Subject discipline of the reader influences many patterns, including amount of reading, format of reading, and average time spent per reading. Faculty members in different disciplines exhibit quite distinct patterns of reading. Medical/health faculty read more than others and mainly for current awareness purposes, while engineering faculty spend more time on average per article reading, and they also read more for research. Other factors that influence some reading patterns include work responsibilities (weighted towards more teaching or more research), age (young faculty are more likely to read on-screen from the open Web) and productivity of the reader, and purpose of the reading (readings for research and writing are more likely to be from a library collection). The ability to predict scholarly article seeking and reading patterns will assist journal editors, publishers, and librarians design better, more targeted journal systems and services.     

Personal documentation on a social network site: Facebook,a collection of moments from your life?

Social networking on the Web has become very popular in recent years. Used by more than 950 million people worldwide, Facebook is one of the most popular of these services. One interesting aspect of Facebook is that users can converse through various formats, including wall posts, photographs, Web links, music, and video clips of stories and interests surrounding their daily lives. This phenomenon raises an important question for archivists in regard to personal history on the Web: What are the new ways that contemporary people document their life stories? This study looks at Facebook activities from the perspectives of personal documentation. Using an online survey, this study investigates how Facebook content presents users themselves and their everyday stories, whether they perceive their activities of using Facebook as personal documentation, and what factors influence such activities. The findings of this study show the current status of Facebook usage. Facebook content indeed indicates information of self-presentation and personal documentation of everyday lives of users. Attitudes about and activeness on Facebook are the major factors that influence self-presentation and personal documentation activities on Facebook. Generic external factors, such as personal archiving in general, do not show strong associations with personal documentation activities as factors. Based on this understanding, we discuss the roles of information professionals and cultural heritage institutions in dealing with a new type of personal record on the Web.     

Do public comments make a difference in open rulemaking? Insights from information management using machine learning and QCA analysis

Scholars still have a mixed picture of the impact of online public involvement in regulatory policy making, and a shortage of theoretical explanations. The novel theory put forward in this article is that substantive, technical and political factors combined can help explain the degree of success public involvement will have in shaping proposed rules. Using a study with 25 regulations from the United States Department of Education, Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) measures the degree of content change between proposed rules and final rules. Substantive and political aspects in democratic legitimacy and pluralism approaches to participation, antecedents are theorized, and associations of the antecedents with the degree of content change are assessed using Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). Findings show that the substantive public contributions do make a difference especially when media attention and input from professional organizations is present.     

What type of leader am I?: a training needs analysis of health library and information managers

Background: Leadership is a necessary facet of professional practice for health library and information managers (HLIMs). Several training needs analyses (TNA) in the health library and information services field have been conducted in recent years, all identifying a need for professional development in leadership skills. However, these previous TNAs have not focused on specific elements of leadership skills required by health library and information managers. Objectives: The National Library for Health (NLH) commissioned the School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR) at the University of Sheffield to conduct a TNA where HLIMs assess their current leadership skills and identify any future development needs in this area. The results would inform a programme of influencing skills workshops. Methods: HLIMs in the UK were invited to complete a self‐assessment online questionnaire. The questionnaire utilised items from Manning and Robertson’s Influencing Skills Style Profile (ISSP). This allowed the results to be characterised by influencing ‘style’. Results: HLIMs considered themselves to have strengths in the leadership areas of influencing, negotiating, managing change and delivering presentations to decision‐makers. They identified significant development needs in communicating with stakeholders, conflict resolution, using body language and being assertive. Most HLIMs demonstrated two collaborative styles identified by the ISSP, namely strategic collaborator and opportunistic collaborator. Conclusions: In difficult times, HLIMs may need to adapt to more of an ‘opportunistic‐battler’ influencing style. It is important that HLIMs not only assess their own leadership skills but also that they take opportunities to employ 360^° feedback, comprising assessment from subordinates, peers and supervisors.     

What do academic libraries tweet about,and what makes a library tweet useful?

People spend an increasing amount of time using social media systems to network, share information, learn, or engage in leisure activities (e.g., gaming). Libraries too are establishing a social media presence to promote the library and provide services to user populations through the social media systems the users frequent. This study explores Twitter uses by six large academic libraries and factors that make library tweets useful. 752 tweets were analyzed by topic to develop a subject typology of library tweets. In addition, tweets and Twitter user characteristics were analyzed to explore what makes library tweets useful, as measured by the number of retweets and favorites received. Content analysis of the samples of library tweets revealed nine content types, with the event and resource categories being the most frequent. In addition, the analysis showed that tweets related to study support services and building and maintaining connections with the library community were the most frequently retweeted and selected as favorites. The presence of a URL in the tweet was positively associated with the number of retweets, and the number of users followed was positively associated with the number of favorites received. Finally, a negative correlation was found between the account age and number of favorites.     

What makes a “happy” workplace for librarians? Exploring the organizational functions of academic libraries in South Korea

Academic libraries are facing the need to closely examine the effectiveness of current organizational functions in response to rapid changes in technology and the information environment. The purpose of this study is to explore the functions and issues of the academic library organization in South Korea based on the librarians' perceptions. We conducted a literature review about the changes in the role of academic libraries and organizational functions. In-depth interviews with 19 librarians and a content analysis of those interviews were conducted. As a result, we identified organizational characteristics pertaining to 1) internal functions of the library, such as communication, leadership, motivation, and team system, and 2) external functions, such as collaboration with external administrative departments, and utilization of personal networks. We also discovered mutual relationships among the functions. In particular, leader's support is important to continuously motivate librarians and increase the effectiveness of the team system, resulting in a positive effect on the reputation of the academic library. This study contributes to the academic library literature by comprehensively and empirically exploring functions affecting the services of academic libraries.     

Does high e-government adoption assure stronger security? Results from a cross-country analysis of Australia and Thailand

We present the first comprehensive audit and comparison of e-government website security in two countries. Australia was selected for its high level of e-government adoption, while Thailand was selected in contrast as a developing nation. Through our audit of 800 pages across 40 websites, we reveal numerous security vulnerabilities suggesting that the high adopters of e-government may not always be providing better protection to their citizens. Alarmingly, the most basic web security measure, the use of Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure encryption was only used in half of Australian and one-third of Thai sites. Our methodology included content analysis of policies and encryption, followed by security vulnerability testing, to provide the first baseline data on these two countries. Statistical analysis suggests that far from being the benchmark for security, Australian e-government sites do not significantly differ from Thai sites in their vulnerability level. The implications of these findings are examined, and recommendations are made for practice. It is hoped that these insights into the current state of security provide a needed stimulus to focus more on the practical information security aspects of e-government.     

What is a Library?: International College Students' Perceptions of Libraries

This study presents findings from an online survey and series of one-on-one interviews with students at New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) regarding their perceptions of libraries. With an international student population, NYUAD represents a unique opportunity to gain insight into a wide variety of student opinions and experiences of libraries. The goal of the study was to develop a student-based perspective of libraries, which can be used to improve library services and outreach. The student responses ranged from intense engagement with libraries to little or no experience. In general, students had a limited view of the role of librarians in the library. Interestingly, many students have a lofty view of libraries and see them as repositories of knowledge for humanity.     

Delineating responsibility,decisions and compromises: a frame analysis of the fast food industry’s online CSR communication

This paper uses a frame analysis method to highlight the ways in which the quick-service restaurant (QSR) industry – or fast food restaurant industry – uses official websites to communicate messages about nutrition and health to consumers and other relevant publics, especially using the language of corporate social responsibility. In the context of the increasing association of QSR industry food to the obesity epidemic in the U.S.A., several large fast-food chains have developed elaborate communication strategies to address the health concerns among the general public of their foods. Using a frame analysis method, I demonstrate that the industry consistently draws on metaphors of ‘individual responsibility’ and ‘personal choice’ in choosing healthy food, while establishing the primary role of moderation and exercise in preventing obesity. As a contribution to the field of PR, this emic frame analysis features an integrative approach that combines both message features in context with message intention. I also discuss practical applications of the study findings.     

The Future of the Library: What Is a Public Library For?

The author suggests that libraries have been transformed a third time. Originally, libraries were the only place that valuable, handwritten, rare books could be found. As mass production kicked in post-Gutenberg, the library became an efficient way for the community to access knowledge. Today, though, in a post-paper world, the library must adopt a new role, a place where the community finds ideas, inspiration and others on a similar journey. The librarian is no longer a guardian of valuable books, but a curator of curiosity, passion and interest.     

Removing Incivility from Google: What determines the number of government content take-down requests?

Requesting Internet platform providers to remove content is one of the common approaches for government worldwide to regulate online incivility. This study investigates the driving forces behind the variation in the number of uncivil content removal requests across countries. By connecting data from the 2017 Google transparency report to a host of societal level indicators, this study finds that the quantity of uncivil content removal requests is related to both social reality and political value factors. Countries with high levels of social vulnerability and low levels of freedom of speech tend to send more requests to Google for removing online incivility. However, democratic and non-democratic societies show different patterns: social reality and political values play important roles in democratic societies while in non-democratic societies, social reality is the only determining factor.     

Do Pictures Tell a Different Story? A multimodal frame analysis of the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict

Pictures play an ever-increasing role in the public’s understanding of mediated events. However, many studies show that visuals remain an understudied field, especially when it comes to multimodal approaches. This remains an important issue in today’s media environment, where visuals and their interaction with textual contents are becoming increasingly important carriers of meaning. The following paper presents results from a multimodal quantitative content analysis of the online coverage of the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict, wherein an innovative comparative approach to visual and textual frames was applied. We examine the existing frames, identify patterns of visual and textual frame co-occurrence and describe changes of the applied multimodal framing. Overall, a sample of 150 texts and 219 pictures was coded. The study shows that the applied visual and textual frames initially correspond with each other thematically. During the course of the conflict, however, the provided textual and visual framing divert increasingly. While the textual mode more or less upholds its original framing of the events, the visual level intensifies the framing strategy it has adopted since the escalation of the conflict began. As a result, textual coverage focuses more on negotiations and solutions, whereas images become increasingly graphic.